On Shambhala Day―this year, February 25th―we rang in the Year of the Earth Ox. A highlight of the day’s festivities was Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s annual Shambhala Day address to the international Shambhala community. Unfortunately, due to technical glitches, few people around the Shambhala world could hear it!

Well, now you can hear it, and the addresses of Khandro Tseyang and President Richard Reoch as well. Audio-recordings of all three addresses are available at: http://www.shambhala.org/community/video.php

Late last summer, senior Kootenay Shambhala Centre member Russell Rodgers released for publication on our Centre’s website a document titled, “Essays on the Shambhala Buddhist Chants.” This document has drawn immensely appreciative feedback. The following excerpt from the Preface might help explain why:

The Kootenay Shambhala Centre is in the town of Nelson, B.C., Canada. We have had the usual disagreements about whether it is appropriate to do the chants at public sittings. When the editor of our local newsletter requested me to write some dharma essays for the newsletter, it occurred to me that articles about the chants would be appropriate. They allude to a lot of dharmic ground, and there is a shortage of published explanation available in simple, everyday non-technical language.

As I wrote the essays, I imagined having a conversation with a newer student, one who been sitting for a while and may have taken a class or two. This imaginary person had some connection to the Centre, but, understandably, had questions and reactions to the chants. For this reason, the essays have a somewhat informal, conversational quality, rather than an authoritative, encyclopedic style.

Russell has just updated this document, including in it an essay on the new chant Supplication for the Longevity of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. The updated version is available (as a PDF file) where the original one was―at the bottom of the right side bar on our Centre’s Home page.

It is also available here: Essays on the Shambhala Buddhist Chants (PDF)

Kootenay Shambhala Centre Director Lynn Dragone recently sat a solitary retreat at Senge Ling, our Centre’s retreat land. Here are some poems from that retreat.

Lynn Dragone:

Karmic Fallout
Nevertheless
Pain is Pain
Workable

* * *

A Crackling Fire
burns darkness into dawn
naked trees stand
innocent and free

* * *

my sweater
folded
so tenderly
on the bed

* * *
Read the rest of this entry »

Touching the Earth, the Shambhala working group on the environment and sustainability, has produced a concise report on its November 2008 retreat at Karmê Chöling. Here’s the link to the report: http://www.shambhala.org/community/sns/index.php?id=423

Russell Rodgers writes:

I’ve run across a good website that brings together commentary from prominent Buddhist teachers and provides a good selection of links on climate change and alternative energy news: http://www.ecobuddhism.org/

Also, Gwynne Dyer’s three-part series “Climate Wars” on CBC Radio’s Ideas can be downloaded as podcasts at http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcast.html. Dyer is a British military historian and journalist with extensive international contacts in the scientific world, intelligence community, military, and social sciences. I find his writing very well researched. He presents a synthesis of views that you probably wouldn’t find elsewhere.

The Kootenay Shambhala Centre heartily invites new and experienced meditators alike to participate in this year’s annual public one-week meditation retreat at Senge Ling, our retreat land near Nelson, British Columbia, from Saturday, June 27th to Sunday, July 5th.

In this retreat, titled “Touching the Earth” and led by senior Kootenay Shambhala Centre member Russell Rodgers, we will explore our experience of the natural world in the context of shunyata, or empty/fullness.

When Buddha was challenged about the truth of his enlightenment, he took the earth as his witness. We will follow his example.

For a full program description go to our Public Weekthün 2009: Touching the Earth page.

This video features the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s Membership Coordinator and Rusung wearing one of his other hats!

The Kootenay Shambhala Centre lies within the Pacific Northwest region of Shambhala. This region encompasses a vast area in the northwest corner of North America including the American states of Alaska, Oregon and Washington, and the Canadian provinces and territories of Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory.

Learn more on our Pacific Northwest Shambhala Community page.

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Here’s a course you might not want to miss. You can participate in person at the Kootenay Shambhala Centre and/or online.

For a full program description go to our Contemplating Reality page.

Below is a selection of photos, including some Miksang images, taken by participants at the (unusually cold and snowy) 2008-09 Pacific Northwest Winter Retreat at Camp Pringle, on Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia. Many thanks to the photographers for sharing their work.

To learn more about our regional community go to our Pacific Northwest Shambhala Community page.